KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 8): Malaysia’s services sector saw its total revenue increase to RM2.3 trillion in 2023, an 8.4% rise compared with 2022’s RM2.1 trillion, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the improvement was spurred by the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector, which improved by 7.7% or RM119.1 billion, transportation and storage (up 15.8% or RM20.4 billion), and information and communications (5.3% or RM8.6 billion higher).

“However, there were sub-sectors which had not yet surpassed pre-pandemic revenue levels of 2019, namely food and beverage (-1.4%), arts, entertainment and recreation (-24.4%), and personal services and other activities (-23.9%).

“This was due to several activities related to the tourism industry still in the recovery phase after the opening of international borders from April 1, 2022, which had not yet surpassed pre-pandemic levels,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

In terms of e-commerce income, the chief statistician said the overall value grew 4.9% year-on-year (y-o-y), recording RM1.2 trillion.

“It recorded RM291.9 billion, growing 1.7% y-o-y in the fourth quarter of 2023 (4Q2023).

“For quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) comparison, e-commerce income increased marginally by 0.8%,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the DOSM said that the volume index of services grew 4.1% y-o-y to record 148.5 points in 4Q2023.

“This brought the annual performance for 2023 to an increase of 5.6% compared to 2022. Meanwhile, for q-o-q comparison, this index went up 0.6%.

“The performance of the volume index of services for the latest quarter was driven by an increase in the wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages and accommodation segment, which grew 4.2% compared to last year,” it said.

The DOSM said that this was followed by the information and communications, and transportation and storage segment (up 6.6%), the other services segment (7% better), and the business services and finance segment (which grew 1%).